Phylogeography and systematics of the westernmost Italian Dolichopoda species (Orthoptera, Rhaphidophoridae)

Abstract

The genus Dolichopoda (Orthoptera; Rhaphidopohoridae) is present in Italy with 9 species distributed from northwestern Italy (Piedmont and Liguria) to the southernmost Apennines (Calabria), occurring also in the Tyrrhenian coastal areas and in Sardinia. Three morphologically very close taxa have been described in Piedmont and Liguria, i.e., D. ligustica ligustica, D. ligustica septentrionalis and D. azami azami.To investigate the delimitation of the northwestern species of Dolichopoda, we performed both morphological and molecular analyses. Morphological analysis was carried out by considering diagnostic characters generally used to distinguish different taxa, as the shape of epiphallus in males and the subgenital fig in females. Molecular analysis was performed by sequencing three mitochondrial genes, 12S rRNA, 16S rRNA, partially sequenced and the entire gene of COI.Results from both morphological and molecular analyses highlighted a very homogeneous group of populations, although genetically structured. Three haplogroups geographically distributed could be distinguished and based on these results we suggest a new taxonomic arrangement. All populations, due to the priority of description, should be assigned to D. azami azami Saulcy, 1893 and to preserve the names ligustica and septentrionalis, corresponding to different genetic haplogroups, we assign them to D. azami ligustica stat. n. Baccetti & Capra, 1959 and to D. azami septentrionalis stat. n. Baccetti & Capra, 1959.

Dolichopoda cave crickets from Peloponnese (Orthoptera, Rhaphidophoridae): molecular and morphological investigations reveal four new species for Greece

“…All the haplogroups are geographically distributed with a resulting scenario rather heterogeneous. Pairwise comparisons between the Peloponnesian species range between 2.5% and 8.3%, falling in the range of interspecific comparisons observed in all the other studied Dolichopoda species (Figure 3, Allegrucci et al, 2014) and consistent with divergence values found in other insect species (see for…”

“…To investigate this further we carried out a genetic distance analysis using the COI gene as a barcode and p distance between all studied Dolichopoda species (Allegrucci et al 2005(Allegrucci et al , 2009(Allegrucci et al , 2011(Allegrucci et al , 2014Martinsen et al 2009). Genetic distance values at intra-and interspecific levels are compared in Figure 3.…”

Cave features, seasonality and subterranean distribution of non-obligate cave dwellers

“…Furthermore these species show significant variation in life history and ecological traits. The cave cricket Dolichopoda laetitiae is generally abundant in subterranean environments of Central Italy ( Allegrucci et al, 2014 ). These crickets are scavengers of subterranean environments but can also feed outside caves, thus increasing the supply of allochthonous organic matter into the caves ( Lavoie, Helf & Poulson, 2007 ; Weckerly, 2012 ).…”

Molecular phylogeography ofTroglophiluscave crickets (Orthoptera, Rhaphidophoridae): A combination of vicariance and dispersal drove diversification in the East Mediterranean region

“…Genomic DNA was successfully extracted from the tissue samples using the GenElute™ Tissue Genomic DNA Purification Kit (Sigma Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA), following the same protocol as in the previous papers (Allegrucci et al., , , , ). Three mitochondrial DNA fragments ( COI , 12S rRNA, and 16S rRNA ) and two nuclear ones ( 18S rRNA and 28S rRNA ) were amplified and sequenced.…”